Another Madoff Swindle

The same government that ignored the fraud gets a cut of the recovery.

Updated Jan. 7, 2014 6:13 p.m. ET

Long after most people have stopped paying attention to Bernie Madoff's $17 billion investment fraud, look who's lining up with the victims to snag a piece of the financial recovery. Why, it's none other than the U.S. government, the same outfit that helped Madoff get away with cheating his clients by ignoring warnings about him for years.

Federal law enforcers are returning to their favorite piggy bank, J.P. Morgan, to extract an expected settlement of more than $2 billion. Madoff was a customer of the bank, and the feds...